1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image forming system, and an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
To support print speed that is increasing every year, it is necessary to transmit and receive print data at high speed within a print system. This is required particularly in an ultra-high speed continuous form printer. In one known method of increasing the speed of data transmission-reception, transmission paths are provided for different colors. In another method, data is compressed to increase transmission efficiency.
In the technology proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-339599, rasterized data sets for a plurality of pages to be printed are combined to generate data continuous in a main-scanning direction so that the plurality of pages are printed on one form. With this technology, the output operation for printing a plurality of pages on one form can be performed in an efficient manner.
In one known system (SED (Single Engine Duplex) system), duplex printing is achieved using one continuous sheet printer. More specifically, sheets are reversed in a printer engine so that two sheets are arranged at the position of one transfer drum or one ink head. In such an SED system, an RIP (Raster Image Processer) unit used for bitmapping of input data transmits to a print control unit one bitmapped image data set generated by arranging and bitmapping front-side data, blank area data for positional adjustment etc., and back-side data. Then the print control unit instructs a printer engine to print the received image data, and the images of both the front and back sides are thereby printed simultaneously.
However, in the conventional SED system, the image data including the blank area data is transmitted as described above, and this causes a problem in that the efficiency of data transmission is low.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the invention to provide an image processing apparatus, an image forming system, and an image forming method that can improve the efficiency of data transmission in a duplex printing system such as an SED system.